Hello

9 December 2016

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

10.0 |
The Skinny

Bloodbuzz Ohio is ... the moment when High Violet makes another of those near-imperceptible shifts, this time taking their fifth album from fan-satisfier to classic
Read Review

10.011993

10.0 |
The Times

Few bands can create an album of such mournful beauty while sounding so comfortable in their own skin
Read Review

10.012066

10.0 |
The Sunday Times

This is what music must do, this is what music means. Anything else is froth. A masterpiece
Read Review

10.012170

10.0 |
Eye Weekly

This is exactly how you follow up one of the best albums of the last decade
Read Review

10.019554

10.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)

The songs themselves are the highlights in an album that separates itself from Boxer and Alligator while still embracing that those albums made it what it is
Read Review

10.019557

10.0 |
A.V. Club

High Violet is carefully considered without being labored, richly detailed without being fussy
Read Review

9.019555

9.0 |
Slant Magazine

High Violet is an expertly handled balancing of the airy and the dense, and nowhere is that better exemplified than on the triumphant "England"
Read Review

9.019556

9.0 |
Consequence Of Sound

They’ve taken some minor risks, tailored their sound, and emerged with a record that can stand confidently beside Boxer and Alligator, all without overdoing or losing any of its predecessors’ merits
Read Review

9.013096

9.0 |
FasterLouder

The National prove their aptitude for creating brooding masterpieces – High Violet takes that a step further with an album that uses an intelligent spectrum of sounds to tell stories that will leave an indelible mark on your psyche
Read Review

9.013907

9.0 |
Prefix

High Violet is one of those rare albums where a band’s rising profile and rising talent meet in a perfect storm of anticipation and excellence
Read Review

9.015051

9.0 |
No Ripcord

The National’s latest is easily up there with the very best indie-rock records of the yea
Read Review

9.012098

9.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes

The National have finally created an album deserving of all their earlier acclaim. They might still be middle-brow, but they've outpaced even their most accomplished peers
Read Review

9.012124

9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit

Let the scribes struggle to find appropriate superlatives that won’t ever come close to capturing the solemn grandeur contained within these songs
Read Review

9.011677

9.0 |
BBC

Its charms are subtle, its grip soft and easily shrugged by those who choose to pay it only passing attention. Live with it a while, though, and High Violet rewards patience with songs that colour one’s waking existence, becoming vivid night-time narratives when curtains are drawn
Read Review

9.011903

9.0 |
music OMH

The National have pulled off a neat trick here - an immediate, commercial album that grows with each listen. While High Violet is patently as good as its antecedents, it is also very much its own beast
Read Review

9.011935

9.0 |
Drowned In Sound

It is a wild, vivid romance that The National make their own, and on High Violet it sounds just as striking, just as wild, just as vivid as ever
Read Review

8.712080

8.7 |
Pitchfork

Few other bands provide more relatable or cutting insight into that world's emotional highs and lows
Read Review

8.511942

8.5 |
Bowlegs

It could be deemed a more mature record, or logical progression, or it could just be seen for what it is, and that is a damn fine record which deserves your time and attention
Read Review

8.512208

8.5 |
The Quietus

On The National's fifth album the band's aim is true; its vision unflinching yet more inclusive, more alive to the possibility of meaningful escape
Read Review

8.012376

8.0 |
Rave Magazine

Fans of The National won’t be disappointed, detractors won’t be converted, but expect to see this one on plenty of ‘Best of 2010’ lists
Read Review

8.012114

8.0 |
Spin

No other band makes dark and stormy seem like ideal weather
Read Review

8.0 |
Daily Telegraph

8.0 |
Spin

No other band makes dark and stormy seem like ideal weather
Read Review

8.011987

8.0 |
The Fly

Sees an already cherished band fine-tune their flaws to become something truly beguiling and brilliant. Astonishing
Read Review

8.011674

8.0 |
Q

In anyone's book, it should be a record to treasure. Print edition only

8.011676

8.0 |
Uncut

At the peak moments of High Velvet, The National are magnificent
Read Review

8.012083

8.0 |
PopMatters

Anyone who loves this record probably has a very exact idea of how it touches on their own life, but most of us probably aren’t going to want to share
Read Review

8.012092

8.0 |
The Digital Fix

Already being bandied about as "Album of the Year" by some critics, this is certainly one of 2010's highlights so and sure to put these Ohio boys squarely on the map
Read Review

8.011998

8.0 |
The Independent

It's an impressive achievement overall, offering a masterclass in subtle emotional shading, which none of their current peers, and few of their inspirational influences, could equal
Read Review

8.012001

8.0 |
The Guardian

Their trump card is a brooding grandeur, which make the likes of grandeur Afraid of Everyone and Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks some of the most exquisitely heartrending songs you'll hear all year
Read Review

8.012004

8.0 |
Evening Standard

Things move at a stately pace and if it sounds bleak on paper, there's also a beauty here that reinforces how special this band is
Read Review

8.012023

8.0 |
NME

This lot are fully grown-up, coloured in and going overground. And if the masses aren’t ready by now, they probably never will be

7.0 |
All Music

7.0 |
Under The Radar

A fine album, a very, very solid effort that contains some marvelous storytelling and near perfect execution. There are no faults to speak of. But that electricity, that fly by the seat of your pants thrill is something that eludes The National
Read Review

7.012164

7.0 |
Rolling Stone

Singer Matt Berninger's gorgeous baritone is still the band's main selling point
Read Review